Viruses - who are they? Dispassionate killers who don't choos their victims, killing everyone they can?
- Thread starter ольга
- Start date
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
The jury is still out I think. Probably class as non living but I am not sure how relevant that is.
What came first the cell or the virus that infected the cell? Logic says cell but like the chicken and egg story that question is flawed.
Virus do not think so do not choose. The proteins on the coat, capsid, align with proteins on the host cell.
That is all the "thought" that goes into it.
Viruses of interest and infamy.
Polio.
Smallpox.
HIV.
Rabies (lyssavirus)
HPV.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Good thread Olga, let's keep it focused and on topic.
Пин, вирусы убили больше живых, чем все войны и преступники вместе взятые. Не щадя при этом ни детей, ни женщин, ни мужчин, ни стариков, ни бедных, ни богатых, вообще никого. Мы должны с ними разобраться. Просто обязаны. Давайте сделаем это.
Давайте. Это наш злейший враг, враг всего живого. Пришло время разобраться с ним.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
No arguments there! I have been in professional virology labs, they are scary places and they were not top Biohazard facilities. There are only about 50 of those globally.
My career however has mainly been Chemistry, analysis and application technology. Some micro in there but not the focus.
So I cannot personally do anything, I know chaps that do though.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
The scientific community are not sitting on their hands Olga and have been at work for over 100 years.
Polio eradicated in the UK, Smallpox eradicated globally.
H1N1 1918 = 50 million deaths
COVID-19 2019 = 7 million, why? Vaccination programmes.
Дайте мне хотя бы общие описания вирусов. Я попробую собрать картину о них. Я заметила, что они действуют не на всех. Даже в одном помёте у животных есть те, кто не болеет вместе со всеми.
Жириновский в нашей стране сделал 8 прививок от ковида, и всё равно умер. Почему?
Вирусы всё время мутируют, и всё время появляются новые. С ними бесполезно так бороться. Нужно искать какое то новое решение. Что то подсказывает мне, что скоро те, кто не обременён эмпатией и совестью, начнут использовать их для того, чтобы подчинить себе весь мир.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
That is because we are all different genetically and have different immune systems.
I pulled out my Medical Micro book, it is hopelessly out of date.
Thomas 1991
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Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Vaccinations offer protection, they are not a 100% guarantee.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Ok a couple of things, first he was 75, your ability to fight infection and produce new antibodies starts to fall off as you get older.
Second, eight seems a lot, when was the vaccine available in Russia?
I had my first in March 2021, booster in July and second booster the December. I had priority as an asthmatic.
2022 I was offered one, no booster so it seems strange he had twice that.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
In fact in 2025 I will be offered one in October when flu season begins. That will be seven in total by the end of this year but he had eight by April 2022?
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
A huge subject!
I found this long and detailed article, admittedly just one person's view, of the role of viruses in evolution here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3755228/
I have not had time to read the whole thing, but I'll copy one short section to illustrate how important viruses may have been in evolution:
Open in a new tab
From RNA to cells: the putative role of viruses during evolution, viruses first. Ribozymes or viroids, perhaps in lipid bags, may have bound basic amino acids (AA+) and formed peptides (black dots), which stimulated ribozyme activities and became important multifunctional components in all RNA viruses. Self-assembling viral core structures, RNA polymerases and the RT leading to DNA, may have formed. Pararetroviruses and retroviruses used the RT to make DNA, which integrated into other DNA and helped to build up genomes. Up to 50 % retroelements are detectable today in humans. Perhaps something like giant viruses evolved into cells, with bacterial (B), archaeal (A) or eukaryotic cells (E) shedding DNA or RNA viruses. Small tailed structures symbolize phages, which are the fastest replicating and most diverse species, perhaps before separation of A,E and B. Paretroviruses are indicated by incomplete DNA genomes with RNA primers
UNQUOTE
By the way, "RT" is reverse transcriptase, which generates DNA from an instruction set provided by RNA.
I found this long and detailed article, admittedly just one person's view, of the role of viruses in evolution here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3755228/
I have not had time to read the whole thing, but I'll copy one short section to illustrate how important viruses may have been in evolution:
Fig. 4.
Open in a new tab
From RNA to cells: the putative role of viruses during evolution, viruses first. Ribozymes or viroids, perhaps in lipid bags, may have bound basic amino acids (AA+) and formed peptides (black dots), which stimulated ribozyme activities and became important multifunctional components in all RNA viruses. Self-assembling viral core structures, RNA polymerases and the RT leading to DNA, may have formed. Pararetroviruses and retroviruses used the RT to make DNA, which integrated into other DNA and helped to build up genomes. Up to 50 % retroelements are detectable today in humans. Perhaps something like giant viruses evolved into cells, with bacterial (B), archaeal (A) or eukaryotic cells (E) shedding DNA or RNA viruses. Small tailed structures symbolize phages, which are the fastest replicating and most diverse species, perhaps before separation of A,E and B. Paretroviruses are indicated by incomplete DNA genomes with RNA primers
UNQUOTE
By the way, "RT" is reverse transcriptase, which generates DNA from an instruction set provided by RNA.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
That is where the virologists and epidemiology community in the CDC and WHO come in.
That is why we keep up with H1N1 and COVID.
That's how Ebola is contained.
Drs, scientists out in the field monitoring world health and trying to keep us one step ahead of the game in war with the microbial world.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
By the way, one point made early in the article I linked to in post 15 is that viruses are far, far more than just causes of diseases. They are absolutely everywhere in the living world, in vast numbers, and for the most part are not pathogenic towards other organisms. Viruses need to be seen as a fundamental class of life (even if they are cannot be said to be themselves "alive" in a full sense of the term), alongside bacteria, and not just regarded as some kind of undesirable parasite.
Ковид вышел из лаборатории в Китае. Откуда мы знаем, что ещё и в каких количествах может оттуда выйти? Нужно уже сейчас искать от этого оружие и защиту, а не бороться с последствиями.
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
RNA
HIV
POLIO
FOOT & MOUTH
INFLUENZA
RSV
MEASLES
DENGUE FEVER
YELLOW FEVER
MUMPS
HIV
POLIO
FOOT & MOUTH
INFLUENZA
RSV
MEASLES
DENGUE FEVER
YELLOW FEVER
MUMPS
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
DNA
SMALLPOX
HERPES
EB
CMV
HPV
SMALLPOX
HERPES
EB
CMV
HPV